Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

5-9). The hardship that this entails for the human, animal and plant populations of
the region was greatly exacerbated by the particularly severe El Niño-induced climatic
disruptions of the late 1990's. Droughts during 1998 led to widespread crop failure,
forest fires, and death of livestock, game and fish populations. During 1999 and
2000, heavy unseasonable rains caused flooding of many low-lying fields, disrupted
the annual migration patterns of fish, and caused severe difficulties with
transportation at unusual times of year.
Most savannah soils are highly infertile and unsuitable for agriculture, which is
possible in most areas only when the soil is enriched either by the concentration of
nutrients in corrals or the use of long-fallow swidden techniques (Rutherford 1956).
Commercial activity, such as it is, is dominated by cattle ranching, but this too is
highly constrained by the hydrological cycle and the limited availability of grasses of
high nutritive value. Periodic burning of the savannahs, which destroys humus and
exposes the soil to further degradation, overgrazing and lack of pasture management
further reduce the availability of palatable forage. Profitability is generally marginal at
best, which has been an impediment to capital investment and a disincentive to
experiment with methods for improving returns (Daniel 1985).
A period of relative prosperity in the cattle industry resulting from the
introduction of air transport to take beef to the coast (Rutherford 1956: 5) was
somewhat brief. Economic stagnation, caused by persistent transportation and
marketing difficulties, has led to a decline in herds to an estimated 15 percent of
their size in the 1970's, and the Rupununi Livestock Producers Association is seeking
to initiate projects to rejuvenate the livestock industry (RLPA n.d.). Attention has
also been given to agricultural development at the village level. A meeting of farmers
and leaders from all Region 9 communities held in 1999 identified the difficulty of
transportation and restricted market access as the major impediments to agricultural
development in the region. Priority crops identified for commercial development were
peanuts, cashew nuts, cassava and mangoes. Projects in food security, sheep and
goat rearing, aquaculture, handicrafts and solar drying of fruits and nuts were also
mooted (Regional Democratic Council of Region 9, 1999).
3.1.2 The Georgetown-Lethem Road
Historically, the Rupununi has been something of a backwater, its remoteness and
inaccessibility from Georgetown conspiring with its minor contribution to the national
economy to preclude any major development initiatives. This may have been
exacerbated by the Rupununi uprising of 1969, when an insurrection led by a group of